I love BBQ season but time is not always on my side. My father use to visit us several times a year and in the summer he would always bring fresh pork chops from his butcher. As we create our family recipe book we are naming each of our recipes because they all hold a special spot in our hearts. So this one is “Grampa’s Chops” - easy, pretty quick and sooooo tasty!

This meal is a quick and easy dinner and one that the kids can help with. Here’s what you will need:

• Porkchops (or any meat or meat alternative)
• Carrots (Make lots because they taste extra good cooked this way) cut into pieces
• Potatoes cut into chunks

While your grill is heating up cut your carrots and potatoes into pieces, I make the potatoes large chunks and the carrots smaller chunks. Make foil packets for the carrots and potatoes adding a little olive oil or butter (spray if you are using a standard foil and not the nonstick) and salt and pepper. You will be turning the packages over so be sure they are sealed well to hold up to moving around.

When the grill is hot place the potatoes on the grill with the carrots ontop of the potatoes. This lets the potatoes get a head start of the carrots but the carrots start cooking a little too. Potatoes take about 20 minutes to cook so about 10 minutes into cooking I put the carrots down on the grill and turn the potatoes over.

Now is the time to put your meat on the grill, depending on how long it will take to cook. Our “grampa chops” take about 8 minutes per side so I put them on now. Another 5 minutes and turn both packages over. When the meat is done the veggies should be too.

We serve this meal family style with everything on one large platter.

Enjoy!

The past three weeks has been crazy busy. Work, life, but most of all - a sick family!

When my kids are sick they hang out in our bedroom watching TV and resting. I like that I can sit with them to keep them company on and off during the day. That blue bowl is Sam’s sick bucket. He passes on the toilet - and has used this kind of “bucket” since he was little. I wrote a column sometime ago about our sick day plan which includes this bucket or if you are creative you can get a summer bucket and let the kids decorate with sharpie markers (with you around to insure only the bucket gets decorated) and it makes a comfort zone for a sick kid. A sick bucket also makes cleanups easy as they can be washed out and tossed in the dishwasher - even brought in the car for kids who have trouble on long rides.

The sick bucket has been put up and we are all feeling much better. Now, I can get back to taking pictures!

Helen

We live in “almost” southern Ontario. Typically, our winters are mild, we get snow but not that much… And then there was this year. The snow shovel we bought a few years back (electric for big snowfalls) had been used a handful of times … until this year. The cozy deck cover we have enjoyed for three years, the one that is too high for us to get down easily, the one that survived the little snow we have had each winter had stood strong… until this year.

I grew up near Ottawa where we had winter. I think we were getting a little too comfortable with this new form of winter - not just us but people across Canada. For us, we have learned a good lesson. We will get out the ladder this fall when we put our summer stuff away - including what will have to be a new deck cover!

Helen

I love the excitement of a good hockey game, especially if my kids and our friends’ kids are playing. Being the wife of a governor (just hockey!) you tend to be at the rink preparing for events long before everyone else arrives, sometimes before the lights are turned on. I love looking out over the ice - noone in the stands, not a sound in the arena. Peace - the calm before the storm. On this morning, as I looked out over the empty ice surface I knew that the day held promise. Our daughter was playing in her first wrap-up game and our son would be soon learn that he and a good friend would share the honor of MVP for the 07/08 hockey season. And kids aside, my husband, who spends countless hours organizing, phoning, talking, and planning would say goodbye to another season of house league. As much as I know he is looking forward to the rest this will bring, I know how much he loves his time at the rink and the feeling he gets from the smiling faces that come and go each week.

If you asked me ten years ago if I would be a hockey mom I would have said NO! But, as it turns out, being a hockey mom is ok. We love the game, our kids love the game. You have to love that!

Helen

What better photo for my first photo than that of a candle representing our family’s first earth hour. At 8pm tonight, along with seven Continents/6.6 billion people we joined in the challenge to turn off our lights and unused appliances for just 1 Hour. What an amazing experience!

Our kids participated in an earth hour at school on Friday and were excited to do it for real tonight - and to make sure we were onboard we received a surprise automated call from the school in the afternoon reminding us that tonight was earth hour and that all students were encouraged to turn off their lights at 8pm.

As 8pm neared the kids pulled out candles and flashlights and our favourite game - Cranium’s Whoonu. And at 8pm we shut it all down and and enjoyed every minute of it. After the fun of playing with flashlights was over we had a round of Whoonu and then decided to take a quick drive to see how our town fared in turning off their lights.

As we drove from our house we noticed some of the houses with lights and hoped that this was not a sign of things to come. But as we moved along we were excited to see so many homes with their lights off. Way to go families…. but what about the businesses in our town (which is not a huge town but we have some of the bigger companies here!) ? I won’t go into who didn’t turn their lights off or at least try to reduce lighting but I will say that their were a few companies who stood out.

Top of the list: McDonalds. Not only did they have reduced lighting but the big M was turned off. I am impressed! Many of the local restaurants and chains turned their lighting down - Wendy’s, Casey’s Bar and Grill, Oasis, McGregors and East Side Marios. We also noticed Walmart had reduced their lighting - which they often do in the summer hours.

The kids returned home at the end of the hour. I think our daughter Emmy was sad to see it go. She likes when we lose power and we can get back to basics playing games and enjoying each others company. Our son was interested in the hockey game he was missing and the ice cream he had hoped he might get on the drive - he did enjoy the flashlights!

It makes me wonder why we can’t turn more of our lights off - why earth hour can’t be more often. I think for our family we will mark our calendar more often, turning off the lights and watching how many we turn back on when the lights do come on.

How did your family do? Did you turn off the lights?

Helen

I have been a huge fan of photography for years, but it was not until I started scrapbooking that I realized the potential it has in capturing the moments of our life as a family. By combining photos and my memories through journaling and fun titles I am able to hang on to every minute of our growing families life.

We all take picture of the BIG events - but I think in the end it will be the little events, the little moments that will have the most meaning. So - here goes. A photo a day to help me focus in on what really matters. I hope you will join me by taking photos too!